Environment

Re “Guarantee the Right to a Safe Environment,” Commentary, Oct. 21: Does Rodger Schlickeisen think handing the federal government a completely open-ended, unchecked, sweeping right to do as it sees fit to “protect” the environment would produce anything other than unmitigated disaster?

It is not without good reason that the political and social mainstream of American society has generally concluded that Washington is more often than not part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Even if the central government is to have a role to play in maintaining the quality of the national environment (and of course it does), blind faith in the ability of the central government to “fix” what’s wrong with the nation (be it the environment, problems of social welfare, or much of anything) is more suited to the discredited perspective of the 1960s left than any serious opinion of today.

FRANK LOWTHER JR.

Los Angeles